Ex-comic puts Mason City restaurant up for sale

Friday

MASON CITY — Former stand-up comedian John Means is putting PJ’s featuring Jack & Jo’s, his downtown Mason City restaurant, up for sale.

MASON CITY — Former stand-up comedian John Means is putting PJ’s featuring Jack & Jo’s, his downtown Mason City restaurant, up for sale.

Means, 57, known as Dr. Gonzo in his performing days, opened PJ’s pizzeria in 2002 and the following year added the adjoining Jack & Jo’s, a steak-and-seafood restaurant named after his parents.

He and his wife Peggy, 54, decided to sell the restaurant and an adjacent building after her recent battle with a recurrence of breast cancer. Peggy took over more of the day-to-day management duties from her son Kyle when he moved to South Carolina this fall.

“The doctors keep telling her to get the stress out of her life, and that’s hard to do when you’re running a restaurant,” Means said.

Means hopes to find a buyer who will carry on the business. The restaurant will remain open throughout the sale, and Means said he hopes the new owner will keep on as much of the current staff as possible.

“We don’t want anybody to lose their jobs,” he said. “The crew that’s in there is very good.”

Rory Tucker, the Coldwell Banker Cornerstone real estate agent handling the sale, said the $249,900 list price for the restaurant includes all of the equipment and furnishings.

“It’s decked out really well,” Tucker said.

The adjoining buildings that house the restaurant also include a three-bedroom apartment upstairs. The third building, which Means is in the process of renovating, is being sold separately. All three were built in the 1870s.

The restaurant and the neighboring Mason City Limits comedy club, which comedian Chris Speyrer opened in 2006, draw customers from throughout the area to the town of about 2,300 halfway between Springfield and Peoria.

Speyrer, a friend of Means’ since the early ’90s, said he understands the decision to sell but also has concerns about what it might mean for his business.

“My biggest fear is that nobody buys it and it just goes empty,” he said.

Even with a new owner, the restaurant might not have the same charm as it has under the ownership of the former comic whose dad was the town doctor, Speyrer said.

Means began his comedy career in San Francisco in the late 1970s and gained notoriety as an opening act for rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He moved back to Mason City in the early 1990s and served for a time on the city council.

Means said he’s not finished with the food business.

One of his next projects will be helping his friend Chris Evers of Greenview promote his new Bacon People Bacon Brownies.

“We’re ready for another act,” he said.

Dan Petrella can be reached at 788-1532. Follow him at twitter.com/PetrellaReports.

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